Delve Deeper
by TheLampPostStation
Summary: Draco discovers his Veela Heritage. Can he hide this from his father, who rejected his own, or can he stand strong? Luna's mother wasn't there for her. When Xeno tells her of her mum's past, she feels even more alone.Can the two help each other find hope?
1. ONE

Delve Deeper

**One**

It was disgusting. Almost to the point of tears. How anyone could torture and ki- I don't want to think about it. Charity Burbage dropped slowly, or so it seemed. That does it. The Dark lord whispered to that huge snake of his. Nagini flickered her tongue over the corpse. I turned to my parents.

"Father, might I be excused?"

"No."

"Father, I-"

"Let him leave Lucius." My mother stepped into the whispered conversation.

"Very well. Leave, Draco." He pointed to the door. I wasted no time in exiting the gloomy room, heading for my bedroom.

I collapsed on my bed. How, how could they actually like that? The killing, the mauling. I bet they're all cheering on the reptile, wanting it to tear the fl- _Stop it. Stop it, Draco._ I told myself, attempting to stop the thoughts that were bred into me by my demonic parents. I rolled to my stomach, planting my face in my pillow. My 17th birthday was three days ago. Tomorrow morning I was to return to Hogwarts.

"Draco?" accompanied my mother's knock. She apparently took my lack of answering as an invitation. She closed the door and glided over to my bed. "Draco, your coming of age has passed."

"Yes." My left forearm tingled at the thought. I was to have taken the mark at that time. Now, though, the mere idea of being one of _them_ made my stomach churn

"Draco," she laid her wrist upon my forehead. "I'm not here about the Dark Lord. Have you been feeling alright?"

"Yes," I lied easily, "Perfectly okay."

"Draco," she warned. I was caught. I told her the truth. I haven't slept without aid of dreamless sleep potion in weeks, I've felt ill, and most of all, I don't want to take the mark.

"I must tell you something that your father mustn't hear of." I nodded. She pulled out her want, and cast silencio on the door. "Draco, I have reason to believe that you have inherited my veela gene."

"What?"

"Draco, your father and I are veela. This sort of thing usually skips a generation. _Gibli?_" My house elf apparated into the room. She smoothed her torn tea towel that was stained and ripped in several places. "Gibli, please fetch the books on my nigh-"

"Mother, please, no. I will go get them."

"Draco, allow Gibli to retrieve them. It is merely veela instinct to allow other creatures to be above you. It will pass in time. On my nightstand, Gibli." The elf nodded.

"Yes, Lady Malfoy, Ma'am," she squeaked, and dissapparated.

"That is the final test, I believe. Upon your seventeenth birthday, Draco, you will have began a search for your mate. Do not, under any circumstances, suppress these longingings. Your mate will too, be veela. She will seek you out." The elf returned, neatly stacking two books on my desk.

"Thank you." My words made the elf burst into tears.

"Thank you, thank you, Master Malfoy, Thank you?" The elf hobbled from the room.

"The first, the larger one, is the _Veela Nature_. Merely a reference for the precession of symptoms, and other information. The next one is my personal journal from when I was seventeen. Please don't let your father know. He rejected his own veela nature. Near killed himself. I found him, convinced him to live. Please read these. They do help." She got up to leave.

"Mother,"

"Yes, Draco?"

"Thank you."

"One last thing."

"What is it?"

"It's not always about love." With that, she removed the silencing charm off my door, and left.


	2. two

Delve Deeper

Two

"Luna? Luna, Luna dearest, where are you?" Looking up from the toad I was holding, I met eyes with my father.

"Right here." He ran over, grabbing my wrist, and pulled me towards the house.

"Wait!" I let the toad hop into the mud on the edge of the river. He repositioned his hand on my arm, and ran. I could feel the scraping of his pixie hair and Doxie Tears (a very rare and beautiful stone, I might add) arm band against my wrist. He asked me to sit down on the couch while he warmed up a new drink he was working on.

"Dirigible plum and snargaluff leaf tea. Luna, I have something I need to tell you. I wish your mother was here right now," his eyes went all memorizey-wrackspurty. "She, her parents, and mine, are, well, veela."

"Veela?" I asked, awed. I knew I was pureblood, but something like this was in my family?

"Yes, do you remember our Heliopath scouting trip in the States?"

"Yes, and we were stuck in that small western town."

"Yes, well, we had to help that poor wizard find his mate, Giselle?"

"He was a veela?

"Yes. The gene, it skips a generation. Even then, non-veela offspring, when they don't couple with Umgubular Slashkilters, usually marry the offspring of another veela couple because the half-veela survival rate is unusually low."

"Father," I sipped the tea, it was wonderful as always. "You said it skips a generation?"

"Yes, dear Luna, that is what I'm getting to. You have inherited the veela gene. Your birthday was half a moon ago." I nodded. "Well, when you return to Hogwarts, as you will, I want you to look long and hard for your mate."

"Mate?"

"Here," he went over to one of the bookcases, sliding a book from my mother's shelf. The title was _Veela Nature, vol. 2. _ "That's all you need to know. Please, go pack your trunk and get ready to leave. I went upstairs, and laid down on my bed. I flipped the book to the inside cover. Neatly, in mum's handwriting, it read

_Property of __Siobhán_ _Erin McLysaght-Lovegood_

_-x-_

Then, as if by an afterthought, several spells were scrawled underneath, each one longer than the next, several scratched out.

****_diligo eternus_

_diligo eternus reperio_

_reperio diligo_

_reperio material_

_reperio humanus material_

_Diligo operor non deficio, vita operor non velieris vestri oculus, spes operor non nuto obscurum_

From what I knew of Latin, I translate. Love eternal, finding love eternal, finding love, finding mate, finding human mate. The last one I knew all too well. Love don't fail, life don't hide your eyes, hope don't give way to darkness. For the first time in seven years, I cried over my mother's death. I tucked the book into my rucksack, and finished packing. The Hogwarts express leaves in forty-five minutes.

**Review review review please. How should I know if I need to continue if I know people don't even bother to say whether they enjoyed it or not? Fellow authors, you understand my agony!**


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